Professor John
Greg Thompson
American History 1
11/30/16
The book Stealing God’s Thunder Benjamin Franklin’s Lighting Rod and the invention of America. By, Philip Dray renowned author, writer, and historian. Philip is known for his comprehensiveness of World history pertaining to racial, scientific, labor and social matters. Dray navigates the reader in an up-close and personal look into the life of Benjamin Franklin, as a youth well into his senior years until death. He outlined facts; Ben was an Inventor/scientist long before he entertained the thought of becoming a diplomat, civic leader, abolitionist and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America.
The message Dray points out about Benjamin Franklin is although he was a political figure, his first love was curiosity of nature and experimenting. Philip Dray covers several areas of Franklin 's activities, but he focuses on his scientific work, especiallyelectricity. All through his life he continued to increase his intelligence. He had a high quality of life; he had strong beliefs in his ideas thoughts and beliefs. He wasn 't perfect but he always tried to achieve perfection. He always took a scientific approach to everything but he didn 't see it as such. He wasn 't aware the he was inventing. He was just trying to figure out solutions to his problems. During His first experiment he didn 't even realize that he would be labeled as an inventor. Again, he was just finding a solution to anything that
Just this small page revealed more to the reader than many other articles about Franklin can. A perfectionistic attitude within the usually glorified hero of America. He was very hard on himself, and clearly tried to live a frugal lifestyle. As a historic character who is often glorified, this human perspective was
After he began writing letters under a nickname that he had chosen, he wrote an autobiography in attempt to “well equip his country” (Marcum 101). Franklin wanted to make sure that the people knew that the individual was more important than the faith, the country, or the whole. He wanted individuals to understand that they can decide their own way. Franklin, in writing his autobiography and expressing to the people how he felt, “learned from his writing” (Marcum 101). His writings during the Enlightenment helped get across to the country what he believed was right. According to Reck, Franklin, looked at his life like a printer does. His life was either perfect or marked with errors ( ). Franklin knew that his autobiography had errors or as he called them “erratum’s” (Reck). He worked on his writings and critiques them for years. In order to have peaceful relations, he believed free trade and reason served as the main
Franklin practical, but perfect, who worked very hard and achieved tremendous success, record the proceedings early in his famous "biography". He was a writer, and owner of a printing press, and Publisher, and a scholar, and a man of charity, and the most personal fame and respect in his day. He was the first great self-made man in America, was born in a poor democratic era of aristocratic splendid likeness helped edit.
The essay Citizen Ben: A worldly American’s Seven Great Virtues by Walter Isaacson is an essay begins talking about Benjamin Franklin. When we think of Benjamin Franklin our minds automatically turn to the story about him flying a kite in a lightening storm with a rod on to prove that lightening was electricity. This is one thing that Franklin did but he did many more as well, in fact it says that he was an inventor diplomat, writer and business strategist. He helped bring the country that we live in today about. There are many views on him that show him in a good light and some that show him in a bad light. There are some that saw that he was shallow and didn’t show great
It is easy to see Benjamin Franklin was no doubt an archetypal American. No one since him has ever had the same amount of success as him. He was a private businessman who made enough money to retire early and to spend the rest of his life in politics. Around this time period only the rich were able to retire early. He was industrious. Franklin continually put forth the idea of the industrious American. He had support from the middle-class who did not care if he was rich but he was a man who was self-made and worked hard. This American attitude was formed early and most of it by him. Franklin was also not judgmental came to decisions and conclusions as a businessman and politician. However, his attitude was non-judgmental with respect to a
Benjamin Franklin notably contributed to the period of religious revival known as the Great Awakening. Being a printer, he was well acquainted with the texts of different religious sects, because much of the material printed at the time were Bible texts. Franklin represents a quintessential ideal of how to achieve success through education. His pursuit of perfection was driven by the values instilled in him by his Puritan father as
Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography is an inspiring tale of his personal, as well as public achievement throughout his life. Franklin’s life embodies the exemplary model of a life composed of discipline, self-reliance and self improvement. From his humble beginnings as an apprentice candle and soap maker in his father’s business to a successful business man, author, philosopher, civil activist, politician scientist, inventor, and diplomat, above all Benjamin Franklin was, and still is, an American Icon and truly a pioneer of the American Dream.
Benjamin Franklin was a man of many different labels, some were desirable but some were detrimental. He was known for things such as the creator of the lightning rod, the Franklin Stove, and also the Bifocals. People saw him as an essential politician and a leading activist in the development of the Declaration of Independence, and U.S Constitution. But Franklin sorta had a history with women, he was known as being an icon to attract the ladies back in that time period. It all started at a young age, and only increased over time. Benjamin Franklin's relationships with women, his relationships with two different families, shaped him into the person he was and created his reputation.
The essay will cover Benjamin Franklins reputation in modern society, his relationship with Catherine Ray Greene, his two families, and the importance of cleaning up Franklin’s reputation for posterity. Benjamin Franklin had quite a few women in his life. He had his wife, daughter, and women he would pick up when traveling. He was intrigued by the stereotypes that were portrayed on the role of women in society. His women ranged in age, but he advised those to choose older because older women are grateful. He was a supporter of equal education, but his reputation of sleeping with multiple of them would be hard to clean up.
“Ben Franklin Biography” helped me learn more about Benjamin Franklin. Before, I had mostly known him as the inventor or as one of the Founding Fathers. In this video, I was able to learn about his personal life. I admired his study ethic at a young age and thought it was interesting how he was a runaway. I was also surprised to learn about his partiality towards Great Britain and that it took him a while to side with the Revolutionists.
want to get out of their future. Therefore, a high school student can make a connection with Benjamin Franklin in a positive way.
In The Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin recounts the many paramount experiences throughout his life that shaped him into great American figure he was known to be. On the opening page, Franklin reveals the book’s epistolary format by writing, “Dear Son,” going on to admit that he’s made some mistakes in the past and to recollect that past is a way to relive it. By divulging his desire to “change some sinister Accidents & Events” (Franklin 3) the author indicates how important it is for his son to observe as he amends his mistakes. Pride, virtue and vanity play a pivotal role in Benjamin Franklin’s life and the way he portrays himself to others. Instances occur where the author is shown gloating about his great accomplishments and he puts
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a detailed account of the illustrious experiences of Benjamin Franklin. Though the cultural differences in writing has changed since the 18th century one can learn a lot about one of America’s greatest forefathers through this book. It accounts for Franklin’s life when he was born January 17th, 1706 till the year 1757. Unfortunately, he died in 1790 and was never able to finish his autobiography. However, the book thoroughly details the early life of Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston. His father, Josiah Franklin, who was a tallow chandler, had seventeen children; Benjamin was the fifteenth child and the tenth son. His mother, Abiah Folger, was his father’s second wife. After he went to grammar school from age eight to ten, Benjamin started working at his father’s business. He didn’t like the work very much, however, and so he began to work for a cutler. When he was just thirteen, he became an apprentice to his brother James, who had just returned from England with a new printing press. Benjamin learned the printing trade, but in his spare time he tried to improve his education. In 1721 his brother
The two different sides that I noticed of Franklin were that one side of him was that he was a scientific person and the other side of him was that he was creative. He was a scientific person because he did a lot of experiments in his time. I remember seeing this side in "Franklin the Scientist". The other side of him was that he was creative. He was creative because when he wrote a story he never used his own name he made up characters like Silence Dogood. I saw this side in the story "Introducing to Silence Dogood". These two sides are connected because when he is a scientific person he is creating new